EU Vows to Deliver Controversial Loan to Ukraine Despite Hungary’s Block

(MENAFN) European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen confirmed that the EU will provide a contentious loan to Ukraine “one way or the other,” even though Hungary continues to block the funding.

Budapest vetoed the EU’s €90 billion ($105 billion) emergency loan after Ukraine halted Russian oil flows through the Druzhba pipeline, a crucial route supplying Hungary and Slovakia.

“We will deliver on the loan one way or the other,” von der Leyen told reporters during a visit to Kiev. Her statement came after a summit in Brussels, where EU leaders failed to convince Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban to lift his veto.

Orban, who faces elections next month, has repeatedly claimed that Ukraine deliberately stopped oil supplies for political reasons and said he would continue to block the loan until shipments resume. “If there is no oil, there is no money,” he stated.

EU officials, who have avoided direct confrontation until now, have stepped up pressure on Hungary, denouncing Budapest’s “unacceptable” resistance at the Brussels meeting. EU Council President Antonio Costa remarked, “no one can blackmail the European Council,” while German Chancellor Friedrich Merz labeled Orban’s veto an “act of serious disloyalty.”

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